*** Official WHAT DID YOU GET? / YOUR EXPERIENCES Discussion Thread ***

[o_arlene]

Nothing really special to go out this year. Just bought some tv on dvd sets to send to my husband in Iraq. My girls have a really bad cold and didn't wanted to get out...but I feel like I didn't miss a big deal

[MonsterMutts]

I am also an avid BF fan but this year I also slept in! The deals weren't any better than the usual every day buys so I'm didn't feel like rushing a purchase just for the hype.

[bonjulie]

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this, but got to TRU this morning at 3:40, and there were people who had camped out and stuff, which we usually dont see at TRU here.......Anyway, we got in line, waited until 5am, and when the they opened, somebody (must have been an employee) opened the exit doors and two men went in and bought every Zune they had to resell on Ebay. This must have been a set up, because I have been going out on BF for 10 years and those doors always stay closed. Nobody stopped them from going in.....my mom spoke with the manager later and he said he was in the office and did not realize what happened until it was too late. As if that was not bad enough, they did not even receive the Transformers Optimus Prime that was on their ad, and there were people buying the $9.99 mp3 players by the entire display rack....AND, one lady every took one right out of another lady's hand!!! The employees were hateful, and all but one manager was very hateful. They will not ever get any more of my money for sure! People were pushing and yelling and cursing....it was the worst I have seen in 10 years of doing this.

Sounds awful! You think these stores would know by now and better prepared for crowd control They also should limit it to one per person. I didn't go anywhere this year. Just bought a couple of items online and stayed away. Sounds like it gets worse every year instead of more enjoyable.

[bonjulie]

It just seems like most of the people out there are after the door busters to resell them on ebay. People that want legitimate items for gift giving are SOL.

[elena_398]

Its stories like this that I thank god I didn't have to go to TRU or many other stores today. I feel for you!

[Lightning_]

BF in this area seemed to be a bust.. No BIG excitment, no real need for police, and the sales this year were either for crappy equipment or good be obtained at multiple stores. The Thanksgiving day sale at K-mart seemed bigger than todays.

 

Location: Portland, TX

[oliviasgrace]

I stayed in bed....since losing my eleven year old to brain cancer, it is better to pull the blinds and try to forget.....not in the mood.

[BFTony13]

I agree. I got there and hoped online and bought something. The guy asked me of I had a wrostband and I said no and didnt get a player. I was so pissed off. If anyone has an extra, I'd love to take it off your hands!

[bonjulie]

Woke up around 7:30 this morning, checked CC.com for grins, and sure enough the $399 HDTV was still in stock with free shipping. I just couldn't convince myself to buy it though. I couldn't help but feel bad for all of the people who camped out for hours (if not overnight completely) for this stuff, only to be able to just click a button online after sunrise and do the same thing.

Wish I had done that. I would have bought the tv. Didn't want to sit outside in 30 degree weather for it tho. Oh well. Maybe next year.

[lesliepear]

Online - Gymboree on Thursday AM - all but 1 item I wanted

 

Today:

Hit Staples around 5:30. Way too far back for a laptop ticket. Doors opened at 6 - grabbed my 2 items off the table in front and checked out. Out at 6:03 AM

Then Target - ran for the Dinoco 400 Cars, they had tons. Went to get ladies clothing and also some play food/pots for a charity gift. Checked out about 6:45.

Walgreens - very few people waiting at 6:50 AM (including someone waiting for the ATM). Got everything I wanted including the telescope, tide, helicopter and keychain. Helicopter ran up as not for sale (manager said it had been recalled and cancelled) - they sold it to me anyway. Also got a razor but they couldn't find the rebate - left my name and number.

Back to Target to return extra Dinocar Car set and a few other things. Looked around again (still had a 10% off bonus from charge card for the day). Found the turtleneck I wanted for my son which I couldn't find Wednesday. Checked out again - headed to Sears.

Sears - picked up clothes for me and a clearance T shirt for 2.33 for my son. Will try them on at home. Meanwhile my husband called me that Walgreens had the rebate forms. So I went back to Walgreens and then off to CVS.

CVS - B1G1F on toys including the 9.99 Hot Wheel Playset. They had disney princess play dishes I needed for my charity gift also.

So, not a bad day.

[Mrs.Gumshoes]

Yes, TRU was a nightmare here in Wyomissing, PA. Not a parking spot to be found in the entire strip mall parking lot (which is huge). Line wrapped around the side of the building so far you couldn't see the end. When 5am came and the doors opened, people arriving right at 5am didn't realize what the line was for and just started walking towards the door. The police showed up just in time! Once inside, I didn't see any fights or people grabbing items from each other, but carts were hard to find.

[jasonaltima]

This was the first time i went to walmart at opening.All i can say is crazy.my mom wanted the portable dvd player i got it but its crazy in there.

[mommy2bugs]

I went to Old Navy first -- while DH tackled Lowe's which was across the way. I was about 5th in line.

 

Our store only had 30 players, and the first 30 people in line got the wristbands.

 

It was pretty known that there were limited quantities, so I knew that if I waited until long after opening, I wouldn't get one.

 

The good news was that if you had the wristband -- as long as you came back within the blitz hours, you were guaranteed a player if you spent the $20.

[Monstermile]

Got to Target at 4am. Probably about 20 people in front of us. By 5:30 there was well over 200 people in line and probably another 100 waiting to rush the door. I commend security for doing a great job of keeping them from doing that. Basically said if they started rushing the doors they would shut them. Scored....

 

Target:

Westinghouse 22" LCD monitor

Guitar Hero III bundle with two guitars PS2

Shrek 3 DVD

 

Staples:

Micro SD card

 

Best Buy:

320gb SATA HD

Sansa Clip mp3 player (got this doorbuster 1 1/2 hours after they opened w/o a ticket)

Gun for XBOX 360

Ghost Recon 2 for XBOX 360

The Break-Up DVD

Kid Rock CD

 

Wal-Mart:

Guitar Hero I and II 2 pack game PS2 (29.99)

Madden 08 PS2 ($19.99)

 

All of this on top of an Olympus 7mp digicam, Sandisk 4gb thumb drive, Sansa e250 mp3 player and PGR4 for the 360 I got at BF prices yesterday on circuitcity.com.

 

 

 

 

Also scored a Wii on Amazon at 3am right before we left for Target. :)

[daworths8]

Walmart

 

Got dvd player & case & dvd

6 track suits (4 girls, 2 boys.....4 @ BF price 2 NOT...stay tunes for why & what I did)

6 pajamas (3 @ BF price, 3 NOT...stay tuned for why)

Littlest pet shop whirl around whatever

 

 

Our Walmart DID NOT HAVE half of anything in their ad.

The $5 pajama sets only had the 12m-5T size suppose to have them thru size 10.

Did not have the $7 baby blanket sleepers.

Did not have the boys track suits, I ended up grabbing 2 of the 3 piece suits ($14.98) with same brand, but not the ones advertised and had them fix them at the register for the $8. HA

Did not have the Mens sports sweatshirts.

No 2' bratz what so ever.

 

I passed by numerous ticked off people fussing about not having things they were looking for.

 

 

I got there at 4:30 I was back home by 6:30. Had my items within 20 minutes I believe rest of the time I was walking around in a daze of disbelief that people cant seem to get their $hit together.

[bpr]

Let's see:

 

BestBuy

Madden 08 (PS3) $10

Tony Hawk Project (360) $15

2GB Jump drive $15

Lois & Clark S3 $15

HP DV6607NR Laptop $449 (Thinking I would not get anything better or cheaper)

 

Circuit City

Mario Galaxy(Wii) $35

Element 32in LCD $399

Compaq C717NR Laptop $299(AR)

 

ToyRUs

2 Little Touch Leapster games $16

 

If I remember more, I will post an update. I need sleep now:tired:.

[zingerhil]

I thought about running to Target to pick up some DVDs before work but decided it wasn't worth it.

[brynnfromtheblock]

How many Zunes did your store have? We got there early and were 1,2, and 3 in line ... when the doors opened at 5am many people had been there a long time and they said "we only have 3". I thought it sucked but since I got mine and they didn't say how many they had in the ad I couldn't complain. What did tick me off is when I went to the electronics dept to get mine the clerk smiled at a guy behind me and handed him a Zune as well. (Someone who had not waited all night). I asked a manager about it and she said oh that was an employee and he waited for it when I said, no he didn't she said well he was stocking inside so we let him go out and get it. I asked her what time he started and she gave me a time and I said we were here a half an hour before that and the person behind me should have gotten it. She said oh well we have to take care of our employees. I have worked retail before and have not gotten to purchase items ahead of time. I work for AT&T and employees could not even buy iPhones, they had to have someone else wait in line for them, and then they had to go on a consumer account so the customers would get first dibs. I was a bit irked by the whole thing.

[zingerhil]

I stayed in bed....since losing my eleven year old to brain cancer, it is better to pull the blinds and try to forget.....not in the mood.

I'm so sorry oliviasgrace

[Panda Girl]

No where on the TV ads did it say first 50 peopel

In fact I just pulled the ad out of the paper and this is how it reads

 

Free MP3 player a $40 value~

{preloades with free tunes}

with purchase of $20 or more*, while supplies last

 

* Offer valid November 23, 2007 on purchases of $20 or more at participating stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico while supplies last. Certain restrictions apply. See stor for details. ~Approximate U.S. dollar retail price as of September 4, 2007.

 

 

But I guess they have to draw the line somewhere

[taegan]

My BF buddies and I were at JCPenney at 4 a.m. I just wanted a new Christmas tree. Got that and some clothes - no problem. There wasn't much I wanted this year. We got to Target about 6:30 and they still had everything. The big surprise was that we got to WalMart about 7:30 or 8 and they still had almost everything. The only thing that was hard to find was the Cabbage Patch Kids....we ended up finding them laying around in different areas of the store. Our WalMart probably had 20 of the Barbie rideon cars when we were in the toy section. They still had at least 2 pallets of Bratz, loads of the small Barbie bugs, and all kinds of the other toys. By far, it was the least busy I've ever seen WalMart on BF. Actually, it was even easy to find parking...and that WalMart usually is packed!

 

The only thing that disappointed me was that ToysRUs was ridiculous. We didn't even attempt it. At 4 a.m. the parking lot was full and ppl were parking at the gas station across the street. We didn't even attempt it. My 3 year old daughter wants a BumbleBee Transformer for Christmas. Our WalMart had NO transformers on the shelves. I guess they didn't want ppl to pricematch. I refuse to spend $80 for a Transformer for a 3 year old girl....besides, my hubby would be jealous.

[masilke]

I couldn't agree more......... 3 instore........employees bought. I am LIVID!!!

[yellowstonemark]

After my experience last year, I decided to sleep first and then hit Tanger Outlets at 2 instead of midnight since last year it went from slammed to empty by 2. This year, it was still slammed at 2. Got several things at Eddie Bauer with their 30% sale (including a down comforter that retails for 189 that I got for 56 with all the discounts on it.) Then....

 

Kohls

In parking lot at 3 with about 20 other cars. Apparently we agreed that with only 20 or so other people we would all sit in our cars instead of forming a line outside. An actual line started to form around 3:30. Got....

Big One Luggage Set

Norelco Speed XL 8151 Razor

Crank Flashlights

Gold Earrings and pearl neclace.

Few misc. clothing items.

Price Matched Christmas with the Kranks for $2 from Big Lots ad.

My partner in crime held a place in line after we got the luggage and the jewelry while I picked up the last few items. Line formed incredibly fast, there was no line one minute, I was back maybe 2 minutes later and there was 30 people in line. Glad I had a friend to stake a spot. Out of Kohls by 4:30. Great experience overall. Many people reported not being able to get an ad in the paper. I had to buy 4 in order to find one with the Kohls ad.

 

Circuit City

In line by 4:45, several hundred people ahead of me. Didn't enter store until almost 5:30. Digital Camera area was insane as there was no one to open the locked case. We just stood around staring at each other, watching employees blow us off. Then stood in line for almost an HOUR with 4, yes FOUR, people ahead of me at the digital camera register. I got...

Polaroid LS75S Digital Camera

West Wing Season 1 (they were out of a lot of seasons by the time I got in the store)

Another couple of DVD's.

SDHC 4GB memory card

 

Old Navy

Store practically empty, waited in line maybe 2 minutes.

 

Wal-Mart

Eerily empty. Not sure if they had all registers open, but none of the registers had any lines at all. Staff was completely clueless as to where the doorbusters were. Nothing had sale prices labeled. Picked up 2 dvd's and a cd. In and out in 10 minutes.

 

Partner in crime hit Best Buy and Target while I was at Circuit City. Reported line wrapped around Best Buy and Target was very disorganized and very crowded, which it wasn't at all last year.

 

Home by 8.

 

Overall a good experience, but remembered why I was so hesitant to go to Circuit City. They are consistently the worst place to go.

 

See ya'll next year!

[Shann]

I went out and got the few items I wanted and was back in record time. The sales just were not there for me this year. The stores were so disorganized it wasn't funny. I would have stayed home had I been able to get the stand mixer online.

[onecutemoocow]

WoW!! Sounds like everyones TRU was like mine. In western pa. Line went all the way to the road and up the road and then at 500 people from thier cars decided that they would just jump right into the line (at the beginning)but they DID hand out tickets for the Zune at my TRU and they DID have the optimus prime but not the fire truck one, the one that has a shovel on top. I got 2 pixters. The employees said they were in the electronics...NOT...they were in the preschool section. Someone didnt know what they were talking about. And if they would have been all out of them by the time I got there because of that I would have been furious!! Now I just have to find the games for them. NOw the lines in the store were horrible!!!! Last year it was VERY organized, this year was a different story!! They told you there was one checkout line you had to stand in...NOT...there was two and the one I was in didnt move. Stood in line for 50 min. If I didnt need to save money so bad I would have been out of there! Other than that I had a good time. Hope everyone else did!!

[Shann]

I heard ours had 20, but when I went and looked, the line for TRU was extremely long, I didn't even see the end! Not to mention there were at least five cop cars outside outside controlling the crowd. I've never seen cops anywhere for crowd control but it makes sense. that alone made me just keep on driving

[jmjj]

Linens N Things

Ripstick - 69.99 w/ How To DVD and extra wheels

Farberware 10 pc cookware w/free plastic cooking utensils, 15 pc knife set w/block, $10 GC - $59.99 - 20% coupon

First one in line at 4:30am. Store opened at 5am.

 

Old Navy

Girls Microfleece Hoodies (3) - $7.25 ea

Men's Long-sleeve Thermal Henleys (2) - $8 ea

Store opened at 5am. Missed out on the free mp3 player.

 

Target

Littlest Pet Shop 'Round n Round Pet Town - $24.99

Littlest Pet Shop Artic Adventure - $7

Littlest Pet Shop Bargain Hunters - $7

Deluxe Memory Foam Pillows - $14.99 ea (not Christmas presents)

In line by 5:40am. Store opened at 6am. Got what I wanted and I got out of there with my life. The Electronic dept was CRAZY:eyepoppin and the toys were across the aisle...carts everywhere!

 

Walgreens

Digital Photo Key Chain (2) - $9.99 ea

iHome Portable Speaker for iPod - $12.99

Deal or No Deal DVD Game - $19.99

2nd in line. Store opened at 7am.

 

Went home and got online.

 

amazon.com

2nd Lightening Deal - Vexplorer Robotics System - $199 on sale $99. Free shipping. I was lucky to get it. I think it sold out in less than 5 minutes. Had to keep clicking on the "Add to Cart" button because the server was too busy.

 

BestBuy.com

LEGO Star Wars Complete Saga game for Wii - $47.98

SpongBob Atlantis SquarePantis for DS - $28.49 w/free $10 GC and free shipping

From the Earth to the Moon DVD series - $19.99

Used $10 in RewardsZone certificates

Got everything I went for, so it was a productive day for me.

[DezaRay24]

I'm half tempted to return the stuff I got since I got better deals elsewhere. I think tha Ad really should have said the 1st 50!

I want to also call there CS to complain. Maybe next year they will be smarter.

[steph1]

My morning started out terrible! Luckily, I got my Zunes online last night -- paid a little more but I was afraid that TRU wouldn't have many. After talking to people in line at Target -- the first man in line at TRU bought them ALL to resell on Ebay! That just takes the Christmas out of Black Friday!

My morning began with my left front tire that has been slowly leaking and us putting air in it. By the time I got to Sheetz at 5:40 am I was on the rim and the tire was 1/2 off!! Called DH and he came (kids in bed!), sent me out in his car and he put the spare on to come home!!! Got to TRU at about 5:10 -- could only find 1 thing I wanted so I left instead of waiting in line. Oh, I walked into a limb going acrooss the parking lot and it hit me in the eye!

 

Bad part of the day over, but by now I thought I was doomed! Got to Target at 5:40 - line was all the way past petsmart! So got in there and got everything I wanted

video chair

DVDs shrek 3, ratatouille, davinci code, charlottes web and more

FP twins baby doll set

PJs and sleep pants

littlest pet shop sets

waffle maker

pokemon play set

furreal babies

 

Then to Best Buy -- in and out with

cooking mama and pirates of Carribean DS

now 26 and hs musical 2 cd

sansa flash drive and memory card

monty python dvd

 

To JoAnns --

 

collegiate fleece w/ 50% coupon

lots of .99 flannel

jewlery tools

lots of notions 50% off

yarn and knitting loom

All with my 20% coupon as well

 

Stopped by Walmart on the way home --

Santa claus 3 and hairspray dvd 0-- price matched

furreal baby - price matched

acouple of other dvds

 

Now DH is out -- getting new tires!!!

[friholic]

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this, but got to TRU this morning at 3:40, and there were people who had camped out and stuff, which we usually dont see at TRU here.......Anyway, we got in line, waited until 5am, and when the they opened, somebody (must have been an employee) opened the exit doors and two men went in and bought every Zune they had to resell on Ebay. This must have been a set up, because I have been going out on BF for 10 years and those doors always stay closed. Nobody stopped them from going in.....my mom spoke with the manager later and he said he was in the office and did not realize what happened until it was too late. As if that was not bad enough, they did not even receive the Transformers Optimus Prime that was on their ad, and there were people buying the $9.99 mp3 players by the entire display rack....AND, one lady every took one right out of another lady's hand!!! The employees were hateful, and all but one manager was very hateful. They will not ever get any more of my money for sure! People were pushing and yelling and cursing....it was the worst I have seen in 10 years of doing this.

I posted in the Who is in Line Thread also. So sorry to duplicate.

 

The crowds, the lines, the disorganization. I expected more from TRU. Zunes were gone very quickly.

 

But I had a similar experience with TRU. This is the worst I have ever seen it. They didn't have the Transformer, but tried to give us another Cybertron thing. I kept telling the guy it wasn't the right one in the ad, so instead of telling me that they substituted he started yelling at me.

 

We got a few games then left and went to Target. There they kept the lines organized, but it was very very very crowded.